Always a Daydream?
by starry-eyed-storyteller
Summary: Hermione is daydreaming, will realisation be the beginning of something more? Please R & R!


Hermione Granger sat in the Gryffindor area of the Quiditch stands at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Above her members of the Gryffindor Quiditch team were conducting a training session and as they zipped through the air their voices could be heard.   
  
  
  
"Ginny your supposed to be concentrating!" Ron admonished his younger sister.  
  
"I am, your the one who's not concentrating otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me!" Ginny snapped in reply.  
  
"I'm the captain, I'm suppose to look out for my team, it's my job," Ron's voice held a large amount of smugness, "and you weren't paying attention you were staring at Harry with a dreamy expression on your face."  
  
"Was not!" Ginny replied her cheeks showing a flush of red that wasn't entirely due to the brisk wind.  
  
Below Hermione sat immune to the sibling dispute above. Her Hogwarts robes were pulled tightly around her and her maroon and saffron scarf was wrapped around her in such a fashion that it covered from the collar of her robes to the tip of her nose. The Mysteries of Muggles: a Guide for Magic Folk by Mathinna Mythica sat propped on the edge of the seat in front of her. If one looked closely you could see that Hermione's brown eyes instead of being focussed on the tome in front of her were glazed and vague.   
  
When she was younger Hermione as an only child was often left alone, not through a lack of kindness from her parents but it just happened. She used to spend this time whether it be in her room, at an appointment or in class, creating an imaginary world. Now when she thought back on it her daydreams had invariable involved magic in some form. When Hermione discovered the joy of reading at age nine her daydreams ceased. She was now no longer alone all she must do was pull out a book and a world would be created for her. However, recently now in her sixth year at Hogwarts and spending much of her time studying Hermione had recovered the joy of daydreaming. She noticed a good daydream could make any situation, a meal, a ride on the train and even occasionally a lesson of History of Magic bearable and even enjoyable. Invariably these cerebral meanderings involved a certain newly designated Quiditch captain.  
  
Hermione's present daydream involved Ron walking over to her while she was studying in the library. She was wearing her newer school robes, her hair was straighter than usual and she had no pimples - for some reason this was very important. Ron walked over and sat down opposite her. He gently kicked her leg under the table and she glanced up and stared for just a moment into his gorgeous eyes. He didn't notice the stare.  
  
"Would you like to go for a walk, take a break from these smelly old books?" he asked playfully indicating the many books surrounding her.  
  
"That'd be nice" she would then reply, in a sure confident voice. And they would get up and walk out of the library.  
  
That was as far as she'd got. Everything had to go right, neither could move to fast and he had to remain true to himself and her to herself- or though a few improvements wouldn't go astray she thought ruefully. The sky above her had grown darker and a fat droplet of rain fell onto her open book. The Quiditch players above were drifting down and the chatter reached Hermiones position in the stands.  
  
"Ron, I know you want to win against Slytherin but Dumbledore is under this funny notion that occulemency lessons to help me guard against the darkest wizard the world has ever seen taking control of my head are more important!" Harry said with a rueful grin, "So I won't be able to practise tomorrow."  
  
Ron stared at his friend and laughed "I'll let you off this once, but only because your my mate!"  
  
"It's pointless a Seeker coming to all these practises anyway all you've gotta do is sail around up there then come in for the kill when you see a shiny object!" Ginny said teasingly. "A crow could do it!"  
  
Harry pretended to be offended and said in a sniffy voice "Well if I'm not appreciated..."   
  
The rest of the team had crowded around the three and Ron started a discussion on tactics for the forthcoming match against the Slytherins.   
  
As Hermione walked towards the huddled team she could hear a fair amount of groaning from the members. Ron had taken his role as captain very seriously from the moment he had been designated the honour by McGonagall at the beginning of the school year. The team broke apart some mumbling about schoolwork, NEWT's and over reacting captains under their breaths.   
  
Harry saw her first and called to her, "Hey Hermione!"  
  
"Hi," she replied.  
  
Ron walked over "So how'd we look?" he asked anxiously bouncing on the balls of his feet with left over energy.  
  
"Fantastic!" she replied on impulse admiring Ron's slim form through his robes and his lovely face looking down at her. She realised her mistake as Harry smirked at her. "I mean the team is looking really together... ergh... great passing..." she mumbled off.  
  
Ron appeared not to notice her slip up. "Thanks, well I'm going to shower coming Harry?"  
  
"Coming" Harry replied as Ron turned and headed off towards the change rooms. "Fantastic, huh, Hermione I'd be flattered if I didn't know you weren't referring to me!" Harry then turned to follow Ron.  
  
"I don't know what your talking about!" Hermione yelled in a half annoyed half amused voice. She was happy that Harry was having a good day, they were few and far between since the end of last school year.  
  
"See you in the Common Room" Harry yelled over his shoulder.   
  
Hermione headed up to the school using her wand to light the path in from of her. Sometimes she was so incredibly tempted to tell Ron her true feelings but her mature side held her back. Or as she had savagely taken to calling it lately her dull, boring never take a risk side. But it was who she was and it wasn't going to change anytime soon. What if she told Ron and he didn't like her back? Their friendship would be wrecked. Or what if they went out and then had one of their bitter rows and never spoke again? It wasn't worth risking one of her best friendships over some silly infatuation that so far had amounted to a million daydreams and nothing more. She stepped inside Hogwarts and enjoyed the warmth that embraced her. For now friends would have to do but one day she promised her self she was going to tell him, or just snog him senseless! 


End file.
